1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control system for an image file, that stores image data photographed by an image-recording device such as a digital camera, for example, into a mass storage device such as a hard disc and a CD-R of an image-saving device such as a personal computer.
2. Description of Prior Art
An image-recording device such as a digital camera has a smaller image-saving area comparing to a device such as a personal computer installing the hard disc of mass storage. The same applied to the case where a mass storage medium is applied for the digital camera, and the recorded image data are often saved in the mass storage device such as the hard disc and CD-R of the personal computer in the end.
There exist two methods of saving the image data photographed by the digital camera in the hard disc, for example.
In one method, the recording medium such as a memory card is removed from an image reproduction device, the recording medium is then connected to a recording medium interface of the personal computer, and the photographed image data of the recording medium are directly saved in the hard disc of the personal computer. In another method, the digital camera and the personal computer perform data communication either by wire communication or wireless communication.
Concerning these points, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-234615 uses unique codes and Japanese patent Laid-Open No. 2001-69296 does not use transfer history information but uses record information.
Herein, a consideration is given to the case where the digital camera transmits the image data to the personal computer via data communication.
Generally, the image data saved in the memory card of the digital camera are kept in the memory card even after the data are transmitted to the personal computer. Therefore, if the camera photographs a new image after having saved the image data in the personal computer when the memory card has a non-stored area, new image data are saved in the non-stored area of the memory card. Thus, the image data already saved in the personal computer and the image data that are not yet saved coexist in the memory card.
As a result, there has existed a problem that the image data kept in the digital camera are transmitted in an overlapped manner when the image data newly photographed are transferred to the personal computer.
However, the image data already transmitted from the digital camera to the personal computer do not need to be transmitted again in most cases. Further, since the image data often have a large file size, more transfer time and electric power are consumed when wasteful data are transferred than the case of transmitting only a necessary file.
For this reason, there has existed drawback that a long time was required for saving the image data and the use efficiency of the recording medium that saves the image data reduced.
Furthermore, when the recording medium in which the image data have been recorded is removed from the digital camera and the camera photographs an image after attaching a new recording medium thereto, for example, the image data of the removed recording medium are not transferred as they are. Thus, when a plurality of detachable media such as a flash memory is used, overlapped image data could be transferred.